FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION 


THURSDAY,  JULY  4 
1912 


JOSEPH   C.  PELLETIER 


F73.26 


n 


f'73.U-?0~ 


ORATION 


RESPECT  FOR  THE  LAW 


BY 


JOSEPH   C.   PELLETIER  A 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  CITY  GOVERNMENT  AND  CITIZENS  OF  BOSTON 

IN  FANEUIL  HALL,   ON  THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  THIRTY-SIXTH 

ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

OF  THESE  UNITED  STATES,  JULY  4,    1912 


CITY  OF  BOSTON 

PRINTING  DEPARTMENT 
1912 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

Boston  Library  Consortium  IVIember  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/respectforlawOOpell 


RESPECT  FOR  THE  LAW. 


FOURTH  OF  July  Oration,  19 12 


By  Joseph  C.  Pelletier. 


Mr.  Mayor  and  Fellow  Citizens: 

'^  Yesterday  the  greatest  question  was  decided 
that  was  ever  debated  in  America,  and  greater 
perhaps  never  was  nor  will  be  decided  among  men. 
A  resolution  was  passed  without  one  dissenting 
colony  that  these  United  States  are  and  of  right 
ought  to  be  free  and  independent  states. 

''I  am  apt  to  believe  that  it  will  be  celebrated 
by  succeeding  generations  as  the  great  anniversary 
festival.  It  ought  to  be  commemorated  as  the  day 
of  deliverance  by  solemn  act  of  devotion  to  God 
Almighty." 

These  words  were  written  to  his  wife  by  John 
Adams,  who  was  known  as  the  Colossus  of  inde- 
pendence and  the  pillar  of  its  support  on  the  floor 
of  Congress;  and  we  gather  here  to-day  in  patriotic 
fulfillment  of  his  prophecy  and  in  consecration 
anew  of  the  most  glorious  day  in  the  calendar  of 
the  Republic. 

Throughout  this  great  nation  on  this  the 
one  hundred  and  thirty-sixth  anniversary  of  that 
ennobling  and  inspiring  Declaration  of  Independ- 


4  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

ence  that  meant  so  much  for  humanity  and  the 
world;  in  every  town  and  hamlet  of  this  great 
country  to-day,  men  are  gathered  together  with 
patriotic  impulse  to  retell  the  story  of  that  Declara- 
tion and  to  recite  again  its  blessings  to  the  men 
and  women  of  all  nations  and  of  all  climes. 

One  hundred  and  thirty-six  years  ago!  —  less 
than  the  space  of  two  lives  of  the  allotted  three 
score  and  ten  —  and  yet  how  much  of  accom- 
plishment— what  tremendous  progress — what  ines- 
timable benefits  to  the  present,  what  illimitable 
hopes  for  the  future! 

In  no  place  more  sanctified  by  an  early  dedica- 
tion and  continuous  contributions  to  the  cause  of 
liberty,  in  no  spot  more  hallowed  by  the  glorious 
story  of  our  nation's  birth  and  development  is  this 
day  being  celebrated  than  here  in  Boston  —  here  in 
the  Cradle  of  Liberty. 

We  possess  the  heritage  of  liberty  common  to  all 
citizens,  yet  we  cherish  a  special  blessing  in  our 
local  history  intensified  by  the  neighborhood  of 
Concord  and  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill  —  in  our 
traditions  breathing  the  spirit  of  Adams  and 
Hancock  and  Otis,  and  in  our  hope  of  achieve- 
ment reflecting  the  wisdom  and  courage  of  the 
statesmen  and  heroes  who  without  count  of  cost 
unfalteringly  sacrificed  even  life  itself  in  the  cause 
of  liberty  that  our  great  Republic  might  live  and 
flourish. 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  5 

The  sounds  of  industry  are  hushed  to-day,  the 
busy  din  of  workshop  and  mart  ceases,  silence 
descends  upon  the  turmoil  of  business  as  the  nation 
pauses  in  contemplative  survey  of  the  past  and 
present,  and  seeks  confidently  to  peer  behind  the 
veil  that  obscures  the  future.  The  passionate 
rush  and  strife  of  daily  existence  are  stilled  in 
meditative  regard  of  the  day's  significance.  On 
the  heights  of  national  pride  and  power  we  take 
our  bearings,  and  measure  our  possible  deflection 
from  the  safe  lines  laid  down  by  the  Fathers 
and  expressed  in  their  Declaration  and  in  the 
Constitution. 

In  the  throes  of  a  great  nation-wide  excite- 
ment incident  to  a  national  election,  we  are  in 
danger  of  the  pessimist  and  the  demagogue,  with 
their  cries  of  impending  destruction  and  desolation 
based  on  the  worst  examples  of  our  present-day 
civilization,  '^sweeping  inferences  from  exceptional 
occurrences,"  instances  that  they  would  use  as  reason 
for  overthrowing  the  Constitution,  tearing  down 
the  safeguards  raised  by  the  Fathers,  and  making 
a  radical  departure  from  the  scheme  of  govern- 
ment contemplated  and  framed  in  our  beginning 
and  administered  with  such  beneficent  results  to 
humanity  during  these  one  hundred  and  thirty-six 
years. 

In  the  consideration  of  the  threatened  dangers 
and  suggested  remedies  we  should  not  forget  that 


6  FOURTH  OF  JULY   ORATION. 

'^ Liberty  is  justice  secured."  It  is  justice  secured 
not  for  classes,  not  for  some,  not  for  the  majority 
alone  —  but  justice  for  all.  The  strength  of  our 
Republic  must  ever  rest  upon  the  fact  that  the 
majority  has  imposed  obligations  upon  itself  that 
the  minority  may  enjoy  equal  rights  and  privileges. 
It  is  "voluntary  obedience  to  self-imposed  and  self- 
enforced  law." 

Law  has  been  defined  in  its  most  general  and 
comprehensive  sense  as  a  rule  of  action  framed  to 
protect  and  promote  the  welfare  of  families  and 
individuals  and  to  safeguard  society. 

A  sluggish  mental  assent  to  the  established  order 
of  things,  to  God-given  law  and  man-declared  laws 
means  indifferentism,  which  bespeaks  failure  when 
the  crisis  comes  and  holds  men  and  people  below 
the  mediocre  in  achievement,  both  moral  and 
material. 

As  children  of  this  mighty  Republic  we  are  at  once 
lawmakers,  and  subject  to  the  laws  so  made.  By 
our  votes  we  choose  those  who  are  to  guide  the 
Ship  of  State,  and  we  remain  subject  to  them  in 
their  administration  of  the  affairs  of  government. 

Is  it  not  strange  how  often  outward  form  and 
shallow  habit  are  accepted  as  realities? 

Not  in  a  waving  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  nor 
in  confessing  the  Constitution  do  we  necessarily 
discover  patriotism.  In  its  essentials  patriotism  is 
rather  a  consistent  reverence  and  respect  for  duly 


FOURTH   OF  JULY  ORATION.  7 

constituted  civil  authority,  for  law  and  order. 
<  Obedience  is  the  child  of  love  and  respect;  it  is 
the  devotion  of  service. 

All  just  laws  must  look  to  man  and  manhood  and 
regard  the  citizen  as  the  creature  of  God  and  not 
of  the  state,  with  free  will,  but  bound  by  the  laws 
of  truth  and  justice. 

From  God  come  the  inalienable  rights  of  man, 
and  yet  there  is  danger  in  a  republic  that  men  may 
come  to  regard  the  laws  as  entirely  their  own  and 
those  placed  in  authority  as  their  creatures  rather 
than  the  instrumentalities  of  an  authority  which 
comes  from  on  High. 

There  is  always  danger  that  men  with  equal 
rights  to  participate  in  government  may  come  to 
look  lightly  on  the  laws  made  by  themselves  or 
their  neighbors.  The  law  seems  to  lose  its  majesty 
by  nearness  of  view  and  its  evasion  is  likely  to 
become  a  trifling  matter  if  detection  can  only  be 
avoided. 

'^What,"  says  Burke,"  is  liberty  without  virtue 
and  order." 

True,  indeed,  liberty  without  virtue  and  order 
becomes  license,  and  license  is  the  gateway  to 
crime. 

"Liberty  is  a  great  and  enlarged  virtue  and  not 
a  sordid,  selfish  and  illiberal  vice." 

Almost  daily  we  are  confronted  by  shocking 
evidences    of    lawlessness    and    dishonesty,    public 


8  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

and  private;  crimes  of  passion  and  violence, 
crimes  of  cunning  and  ingenuity  still  throw  a 
black  shadow  across  the  path  of  advancing  civiliza- 
tion. A  despicable  sentimentality,  born  of  impulse 
and  emotional  obliquity,  seeks  to  render  null  the 
processes  of  law  where  the  crime  and  the  criminal 
are  momentarily  lifted  out  of  the  commonplace  by 
the  ogre  of  sensationalism.  The  foul  blot  of  suicide 
no  longer  excites  horror  or  pity.  The  thief  in  high 
places  conceals  his  offense  under  a  mask  of  refine- 
ment and  education  as  he  consorts  with  virtue  and 
decency.  The  foundation  of  the  nation  —  the  family 
—  is  assailed  by  that  enemy  of  morality  and  civil 
stability,  divorce. 

Some  men,  apprehensive  of  the  future,  have 
patiently  set  about  to  effect  a  cure  or  work  an 
improvement,  at  least,  by  making  a  determined 
effort  to  awaken  the  civic  conscience  of  the  people 
and  bring  home  to  them  a  sense  of  their  responsi- 
bility to  the  state  and  to  themselves. 

To  gain  this  laudable  end  they  would  expose  to 
public  view  the  violations  of  law  and  crimes  against 
citizenship  in  the  hope  that  the  horror  of  it  all  may 
stimulate  the  virtue  of  the  people. 

When  human  frailty  is  laid  bare,  however,  the 
reason  must  be  written  down  as  lack  of  respect 
for  the  law,  and  the  realization  comes  home  that 
beneath  and  behind  a  pure  government  must  be  a 
virtuous  people. 


FOURTH  OF   JULY  ORATION.  9 

We  cannot  recall  too  often,  then,  those  strong 
words  of  Washington  in  his  Farewell  Address: 

''Of  all  the  dispositions  and  habits  which  lead  to 
political  prosperity  religion  and  morality  are  indis- 
pensable supports.  In  vain  would  that  man  claim 
the  tribute  of  patriotism  who  would  labor  to  sub- 
vert these  great  pillars  of  human  happiness,  these 
firmest  props  of  the  duties  of  men  and  citizens. 
The  mere  politician  equally  with  the  pious  man 
ought  to  respect  and  cherish  them.  A  volume 
could  not  trace  all  their  connections  with  private  and 
public  felicity.  Let  it  simply  be  asked,  where  is 
the  security  for  property,  for  reputation,  for  life,  if 
the  sense  of  religious  obligation  desert  the  oaths 
which  are  the  instruments  of  investigation  in  courts 
of  justice?  And  let  us  with  caution  indulge  the 
supposition  that  morality  can  be  maintained  with- 
out religion.  Whatever  may  be  conceded  to  the 
influence  of  refined  education  on  minds  of  peculiar 
structure,  reason  and  experience  both  forbid  us 
to  expect  that  national  morality  can  prevail  in 
exclusion  of  religious  principle." 

It  was  De  Tocqueville  who  said: 
K  ''You  may  talk  of  the  people  and  their  majesty, 
but  where  there  is  no  respect  for  God,  can  there 
be  much  for  man?  You  may  talk  of  the  supremacy 
of  the  ballot,  respect  for  order,  denounce  riot, 
secession, —  unless  religion  is  the  first  link,   all  is 


10  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

^  Irreverence,  with  its  brood  of  socialism,  anarchy, 
divorce  and  other  civic  and  moral  disorders,  follows 
most  naturally  and  inevitably  upon  the  denial  of 
the  laws  of  God  and  the  consequent  failure  con- 
scientiously to  appreciate  one's  duty  to  the  state 
and  his  fellow  man. 

Ruthless  disregard  of  the  solemn  promises  pub- 
licly made  to  the  people  and  faithlessness  to  the 
oath  of  office  by  men  in  public  positions  are  charac- 
teristics all  too  common.  In  the  courts  of  justice 
we  are  frequently  struck  by  the  violation  by 
so-called  honest  men  of  the  oath  administered 
to  them;  the  oath,  ''the  link  that  binds  the  soul 
of  the  creature  to  the  footstool  of  the  Creator." 
Men  in  the  jury  box,  in  the  exercise  of  the  high 
privilege  and  duty  of  citizenship,  almost  daily  insult 
duly  constituted  authority  and  citizenship  itself  by 
disregarding  their  oath-bound  duty  and  voting 
according  to  prejudice  or  price.  Too  frequently 
in  the  courts  of  justice  witnesses  are  found  who 
outrage  the  law  of  the  land  and  the  heritage  of 
free  men  by  false  testimony. 

Hideous  as  these  weaknesses  are  they  point  not  to 
a  defect  in  our  form  of  government  or  system 
of  laws;  rather  do  they  relate  back  to  the  indi- 
vidual whom  no  law  can  make  virtuous,  as  Wash- 
ington said,  without  religion  and  morality. 

To  the  serious  minded  the  increasing  number  of 
non-attendants  at  church  and  the  consequent  grow- 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  11 

ing  emptiness  of  the  meeting-houses  of  rehgion 
might  well  cause  apprehension  more  fearful  than 
many  of  the  ills  so  frequently  adverted  to  in  these 
days. 

However,  we  are  not  to  become  pessimists  or 
alarmists.  Optimism  must  be  our  watchword. 
Ever  it  must  be  in  the  devotion  of  service,  in  respect 
for  the  law,  to  build  and  to  accomplish  and  to  be 
hopeful  even  amidst  the  failures  of  men  and  the 
mistakes  of  a  government  of  the  people  by  the 
people. 

To-day  we  are  fighting  the  battles  of  peace  and 
her  victories  wait  upon  our  devotion  to  the  highest 
civic  ideals.  As  we  recall  the  glorious  struggles  of 
the  past  in  war  and  in  peace  we  must  find  our- 
selves fortified  to  continue  the  struggle  for  the 
betterment  of  men.  We  must  redeem  in  the  fullest 
accomplishment  of  a  government  by  the  people  the 
awful  debt  of  treasure  and  life  suffered  by  the  men 
of  1775  and  1861.  True  to  the  best  traditions  of 
the  past,  let  it  be  our  ambition  to  frame  even 
higher  standards  for  the  future. 

It  is  comforting  to  know  that  all  the  complaints 
at  present  laid  upon  our  system  of  laws  have  been 
urged  before.  It  was  in  1860,  in  a  debate  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  on  a  question  affecting  the 
extension  of  the  elective  franchise  in  England, 
that  the  United  States  was  held  up  as  an  awful 
example  of  the  danger  of  entrusting  a  ballot  to  the 


12  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

people.  In  the  course  of  that  debate  Earl  Grey 
stated  that  in  the  United  States,  since  the  Revolu- 
tionary period  and  by  the  undue  extension  of  the 
right  of  suffrage,  our  elections  had  become  a 
mockery,  our  Legislatures  venal,  our  courts  tainted 
with  party  spirit,  our  laws  ''cobwebs,"  which  the 
rich  and  poor  could  alike  break  through  and  the 
country  and  the  government  in  all  its  branches 
given  over  to  corruption,  violence  and  a  general 
disregard  of  public  morality. 

These  words  have  a  strangely  familiar  sound  in 
these  our  days,  more  than  fifty  years  after  their 
utterance.  It  would  almost  seem  that  they  were 
spoken  yesterday. 

Referring  to  this  arraignment  Edward  Everett  said: 

"If  these  opinions  are  well  founded,  then  certainly 
we  labor  under  a  great  delusion  in  celebrating  the 
National  Anniversary.  Instead  of  joyous  chimes 
and  merry  peals,  responding  to  the  triumphant 
salvos  which  ushered  in  the  day,  the  Fourth  of 
July  ought  rather  to  be  commemorated  by  funeral 
bells,  and  minute  guns,  and  dead  marches;  and 
we,  instead  of  assembling  in  the  festal  hall  to  con- 
gratulate each  other  on  its  happy  return,  should 
have  been  better  found  in  sackcloth  and  ashes 
in  the  house  of  penitence  and  prayer." 

Rather  than  my  feeble  words  I  wish  I  might 
read  to  you  Everett's  answer  to  those  charges; 
that   we   might   follow   his   inquiry    ''whether   the 


FOURTH  OF  JULY   ORATION.  13 

salutary  checks  of  our  system  formerly  existing 
have  been  swept  away  and  our  experiment  of  elec- 
tive self-government  has  consequently  become  a 
failure;  whether,  in  a  word,  the  great  design  of 
Providence  in  the  discovery,  settlement,  political 
independence  and  national  growth  of  the  United 
States  has  been  prematurely  arrested  by  our  per- 
versity; or  whether  on  the  contrary  that  design 
is  not  —  with  those  vicissitudes  and  drawbacks  and 
human  infirmities  of  character  and  uncertainties 
of  fortune  which  beset  alike  the  individual  man  and 
the  societies  of  men  in  the  Old  World  and  the  new — 
in  a  train  of  satisfactory,  hopeful,  nay,  triumphant 
and  glorious  fulfillment." 

His  answer  to  those  charges  of  fifty  years  ago  is 
the  answer  that  we  make  to-day  to  similar  charges. 
These  past  fifty  years  lend  added  strength  to  the 
refutation  and  fill  us  with  hope  and  confidence 
that  our  deflection  from  the  path  of  righteousness 
in  civic  affairs  has  been  small  indeed,  and  due  to 
humanity's  weakness  in  public  as  well  as  in  private 
affairs,  merely  the  ^'fluctuations  ever  visible  in  the 
march  of  human  affairs." 

Ruskin  tells  us  that  the  desideratum  is  ''not 
equality  but  a  frank  recognition  of  every  better- 
ness,"  and  so  it  becomes  our  duty  to  make  and  live 
and  labor  for  a  betterment  in  the  conditions  of  our 
citizens  and  an  acknowledgment  of  every  man's 
goodness. 


14  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

While  not  peculiar  to  our  country  by  any  means, 
the  frequent  differences  between  labor  and  capital, 
the  consequent  loss  to  both,  the  bitterness  engendered 
and  the  generally  bad  effect  upon  the  community 
attendant  upon  every  such  struggle  cannot  fail  to 
make  us  pause  and  ask  ourselves  whether  some 
remedy  cannot  be  had,  some  preventive  found  that 
will  make  less  frequent,  if  not  altogether  impossible, 
such  devastating  conflicts. 

The  sad  spectacle  during  the  year  of  one  of  our 
great  cities,  one  of  the  greatest  manufacturing  cen- 
ters of  the  country,  if  not  of  the  world,  held  in 
order  for  weeks  by  the  militia  of  the  state  cannot 
fail  to  impress  every  citizen  with  the  importance 
of  facing  the  facts  and  seeking  a  remedy. 

It  may  be  that  in  a  law  compelling  arbitration 
the  solution  will  be  found,  but  from  the  parties 
themselves  would  better  come  the  adjustment. 

Laws,  after  all,  cannot  in  their  essence  confer 
rights ;  it  were  better  to  say  that  they  simply  declare 
and  conserve  to  men  certain  inalienable  rights, 
recognizing  that  man  has  duties  to  perform,  sacri- 
fices to  make  for  the  state  in  order  that  society 
may  be  safeguarded  and  the  security  and  happiness 
of  the  individual  assured. 

The  strength  of  the  Republic  depends  upon  the 
integrity  of  her  citizens,  and  respect  for  law  and 
order  and  for  one  another  is  the  only  sure  guaranty 
for  the  perpetuation  of  our  free  institutions. 


FOURTH   OF   JULY   ORATION.  15 

All  good  citizens  must  stand  for  the  living  wage 
dictated  by  justice  and  charity.  The  laborer  is 
not  a  mere  machine  useful  only  to  produce  a  given 
output;  he  is  a  man,  a  fellow  human-being  entitled 
to  the  respect  and  regard  and  protection  of  his 
employer. 

The  employee,  on  the  other  hand,  must  recognize 
hi-s  duty  to  give  conscientious  labor  for  fair  wages. 

There  is  no  room  in  this  Republic  for  any  man 
or  class  of  men  who  would  insist  upon  the  most 
for  the  least  in  the  field  of  labor.  Fairness,  justice 
and  citizenship  must  be  the  rule  and  standard 
if  peace  is  to  reign  and  happiness  prevail. 

We  have  yet  much  to  accomplish  for  the  amelio- 
ration of  social  conditions  and  the  betterment  of 
man  when  it  can  be  said  that  several  members 
of  a  family  toiling  through  the  usual  hours  of  labor 
can  jointly  barely  secure  the  merest  necessaries 
of  life. 

This  Commonwealth  has  estabhshed  a  Free 
Employment  Bureau  which  has  passed  out  of  the 
experimental  stage  and  must  claim  our  best  efforts 
and  most  generous  aid  while  there  are  those  able 
and  willing  to  work  who  are  unable  to  find  employ- 
ment. 

"The  rights  of  man"  and  "majesty  of  the 
people"  are  "  as  sounding  brass  or  a  tinkling 
cj^mbal"  if  that  chief  est  right  and  greatest 
majesty  of   man   is   denied   him   or   minimized   in 


16  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

the  least,^ — the  inherent  God-given  right  and  duty 
to  gain  his  livelihood  in  honorable  employment, 
to  support  and  maintain  his  family  in  comfort 
and  decency. 

It  is  hardly  possible  for  us  to  analyze  the  state 
of  mind  of  the  man  so  situated.  His  attitude 
towards  other  men  more  fortunate,  towards  the 
affluent,  his  attitude  towards  government,  the 
haven,  as  he  has  been  told,  of  the  weak  and 
oppressed  of  all  nations,  can  hardly  be  pictured 
by  those  who  have  not  suffered  as  he  has. 

Yet  it  cannot  be  gainsaid  that  such  pitiable 
conditions  do  not  lend  to  the  upbuilding  of  good 
citizens.  Mentally  and  morally  there  is  a  handi- 
cap; physically  there  is  not  an  equal  chance. 

If  these  conditions  exist  in  many  cities  or  manu- 
facturing centers  we  are  bound  to  lend  a  helping 
hand;  we  are  without  excuse  in  not  agitating  such 
actual  problems  until  by  law  or  through  con- 
scientious obligation  those  primarily  responsible 
have  made  amends. 

These  days  of  great  wealth,  of  lavish  display,  of 
public  exhibition  of  money  and  its  power  are  not 
calculated  to  appease  the  hunger  of  the  poor  or  to 
smooth  the  rough  path  of  the  unfortunate. 

The  mere  contemplation  of  the  money  invested 
in  pleasure-seeking  is  theme  sufficient  upon  which 
to  build  up  socialism  and  anarchy. 

The  right  theory  of  private  ownership  which  it 


FOURTH  OF   JULY   ORATION.  17 

is  sought  to  overturn  cannot  be  sustained  by  deny- 
ing the  poor  and  lowly  their  only  inherent  prop- 
erty right, —  the  right  to  an  honest  wage  for  honest 
labor. 

We  cannot  hope  to  stem  the  rising  power  of 
socialism  and  its  destructive  agencies  merely  by 
seeking  protection  for  physical  property  and  insist- 
ing upon  the  right  of  ownership,  if  we  stand  at  the 
bar  to  plead  the  cause  with  unclean  hands,  with 
unfair  spoils  and  profits  to  our  credit. 

In  denying  our  fellowmen  the  right  to  subsist 
decently  we  are  loosening  the  real  keystone  of  the 
social  fabric  and  forging  strongest  arms  for  the 
forces  of  disorder  and  anarchy. 

What  hypocrisy  to  count  our  progress  and  social 
betterment,  to  boast  our  pure  food  laws  and  our 
sanitary  ordinances  when  thousands  of  people  such 
as  I  have  described  are  to  be  found  in  all  our  large 
centers ! 

What  avail  the  elaborate  school  facilities,  mag- 
nificent park  systems,  fine  public  buildings,  libraries 
and  all  that  helps  to  make  the  "city  beautiful,"  if 
men  and  women  and  children  have  not  enough 
to  eat,  nor  enough  to  wear,  if  they  must  live  and 
sleep  and  work  with  gaunt  poverty  and  starvation 
as  their  constant  companions? 

We  cannot  escape  this  problem  by  deploring 
past  conditions  or  present  difficulties.  It  is  a 
real,  living,  growing  issue  of  daily  existence   that 


18  FOURTH  OF   JULY  ORATION. 

will  not  cure  itself,  nor  improve  at  all  without  an 
insistently  active  and  practical  campaign. 

What  of  the  merchant-princes,  prodigal  in  their 
private  and  public  charities,  patrons  of  education, 
of  art,  of  science,  in  whose  stores  and  factories 
young  girls  are  working  from  morning  until  night 
for  six  days  a  week  for  a  mere  pittance? 

These  are  the  children  of  the  poor,  who  once  past 
the  schooling  age  must  support  themselves  and 
assist  to  support  the  family  at  home. 

Know  you  these  conditions?  Have  you  ever 
thought  of  what  it  all  means?  The  wrecking  of 
souls  and  bodies;  the  crushing  of  youthful  ambition 
and  courage;  the  grinding  down  into  machine- 
parts  of  these  fair  children  of  the  poor! 

And  where  lies  the  remedy  and  what  the  means 
to  correct  this  awful  condition? 

It  is  said  that  wild  horses  upon  being  attacked 
by  the  wolves  form  a  ring  around  the  mares 
and  young,  presenting  a  battery  of  heels  to  the 
enemy.  We  all  know  the  infinite  care  and 
solicitude  of  the  mother  bird  for  its  young  and 
helpless  fledgling.  Everywhere  in  nature  is  found 
this  same  spirit  of  helpfulness  to  the  weak. 

We  willingly  support  the  pauper  at  public  expense; 
gladly  we  care  for  the  sick  in  our  hospitals, 
but  alas,  how  little  we  are  doing  for  the  healthy, 
the  able,  the  willing,  who  want  no  charity, 
who  seek  only  the  opportunity  to ,  gain  a  living  in 
exchange  for  their  labor. 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  19 

Let  US  broaden  this  great  work  —  let  us  magnify 
our  charity  —  until  it  shall  come  to  mean  not 
alone  the  giving  of  money,  but  the  giving  of  oppor- 
tunity, the  willing  grant  of  rights  to  all,  that  men 
may  live  their  lives  freely  and  fairly  even  though 
by  the  sweat  of  their  brow. 

Humanity  is  fast  being  written  into  our  laws  and 
the  law  of  vengeance  and  retaliation  is  fast  passing 
from  our  midst. 

Men  are  coming  to  see  that  the  lawbreaker  is 
not  of  necessity  like  the  savage  beast  which  must 
be  confined  behind  iron  bars  to  protect  the  com- 
munity. 

Our  laws  to-day  are  seeking  the  means  to  search 
the  very  soul  of  him  accused  of  crime,  in  order 
to  determine  whether  circumstance,  environment, 
weakness,  or  vicious  wilful  transgression  is  the  cause 
of  his  wrongdoing.  And  yet  we  are  only  at  the 
threshold  of  this  new  thought  in  the  treatment  of 
lawbreakers. 

The  state  seeks  no  vengeance;  her  one  solicitude  is 
for  the  safety  of  society.  If  it  becomes  necessary  in 
the  interests  of  good  order  to  imprison  or  fine,  the 
imposition  of  sentence  brings  its  own  punishment  of 
course,  but  the  state  in  the  humanity  of  the  pres- 
ent day  advancement  seeks  not  to  punish,  not  to 
harm  the  individual,  but  straightway  sets  out  to 
reform,  to  reorganize  a  fallen  manhood,  to  restore 
to  society  a  useful  man  where  before  there  lived  a 
menace. 


20  FOURTH  OF  JULY   ORATION. 

The  rack,  the  stocks,  the  lash,  the  horrors  of 
subterranean  dungeons,  starvation  —  all  these  evi- 
dences of  a  state  which  sought  vengeance  on  the 
individual  because  he  had  invaded  the  sanctity 
of  her  laws  —  are  passed  and  gone  forever. 

To-day  kindness  and  mercy  are  paramount. 
"The  noblest  work  of  God"  is  seen  even  behind 
the  smut  and  grime  and  horror  of  blackest  trans- 
gression of  the  laws,  and  salvation  of  the  man, 
his  restoration  to  society  as  a  useful  member,  is 
the  sole  thought  to-day  in  the  administration  of 
our  criminal  laws. 

But  yesterday  the  felon  went  crushed  in  spirit, 
beaten  in  body,  hopeless  in  soul  to  the  grim  confines 
of  the  penitentiary,  perhaps  to  emerge  a  marked 
man,  branded  with  society's  scarlet  scar  of  dis- 
grace, a  hunted  and  hated  man  forever  after, — 
or  perhaps  never  again  to  come  forth,  but  wasting 
away  in  want  and  discomfort,  doomed  to  die  the 
death  of  a  neglected  outcast. 

And  shall  it  be  that  the  law  which  has  so  changed 
its  viewpoint  of  the  lawbreaker,  the  enemy  or  at 
least  the  danger  to  society  —  that  that  law  shall 
not  see  the  want  and  misery  of  the  poor,  shall  not 
make  provision  for  the  upbuilding  and  life-saving 
of  the  men  and  women  and  children  who  must  toil 
for  their  daily  bread? 

Must  men  become  criminals  or  paupers  before 
our  laws  shall  hold  out  to  them  a  chance  to  live 
by  their  own  hands? 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  21 

A  hundred  years  ago  the  present  attitude  towards 
those  found  guilty  of  crime  would  have  been  scouted 
as  the  wild  dream  of  an  idealist  or  crazy  notion 
of  a  fool!  To-day  we  are  looking  forward  to  greater 
changes  and  more  radical  improvements  in  their 
treatment. 

It  may  be  paternalism,  it  may  be  anything  that 
harsh,  cold,  soulless  men  may  call  it,  but  the 
demand  that  the  state  shall  exact  of  employers  fair, 
decent  wages  for  the  employees  will  not  down  and 
must  be  settled  right. 

The  state  to-day  has  forced  upon  the  unwilling 
employer  many  regulations  as  to  hours  of  employ- 
ment, ventilation  and  sanitation. 

The  law  that  can  enforce  decent  quarters  for  the 
employee  should  go  further  and  insist  that  he 
shall  have  a  fair  living  wage. 

This  is  not  socialism;  this  is  democracy  and 
decency  and  freedom  that  alone  can  save  us  from  the 
socialist. 

It  is  not  deprivation  of  property  without  due 
process,  it  may  rather  be  described  as  the  declara- 
tion and  guaranty  of  vested  rights  always  existing 
by  divine  right  and  denied  by  selfishness  and  igno- 
rance. It  is  because  we  have  too  little  or  no  appre- 
ciation or  respect  for  the  divine  natural  laws  that 
man  must  write  them  in  his  book  of  laws  and  hold 
them  before  all  men  for  observance. 

But  let  us  turn  from  the  consideration  of  these 
social   problems   to   one   of   the   gravest   questions 


22  FOURTH   OF  JULY  ORATION. 

that  has  been  set  before  our  people  since  the  Civil 
War.  It  is  a  question  that  goes  further  than  the 
matter  of  individual  rights  and  social  reforms 
and  strikes  its  roots  deep  in  the  very  essence  of 
our  existence  as  a  Republic  of  laws  under  a  written 
Constitution. 

I  refer  to  the  new  doctrine  of  recall  of  judges 
and  recall  of  judicial  decisions. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  recall  of  judges  has 
already  been  adopted  in  some  states  and  its 
dangerous  effects  cannot  therefore  be  said  to  be 
immediately  fatal  to  our  institutions,  nevertheless, 
its  certain  effect  as  amplified  and  simplified  and 
made  familiar  to  the  people  cannot  fail  to  be  a 
constant,  growing  and  vital  menace  to  the  fair 
and  impartial  administration  of  justice. 

The  authority  is  asked  to  lay  before  the  people 
for  their  decision  the  question  whether  a  given 
judge  shall  be  recalled  or  retired  from  the  bench 
on  account  of  some  decision  he  has  made. 

As  expressed  by  its  leading  advocate : 

'^  either  the  recall  will  have  to  be  adopted 

or  else  it  will  have  to  be  made  much  easier  than  it 
is  now  to  get  rid  not  merely  of  a  bad  judge,  but 
of  a  judge  who,  however  virtuous,  has  grown  so 
out  of  touch  with  social  needs  and  facts  that  he 
is  unfit  longer  to  render  good  service  on  the  bench." 

It  matters  not  that  he  has  decided  a  cause 
according    to    precedent    and    in    agreement    with 


FOURTH   OF  JULY   ORATION.  23 

the  constitutional  limitations  —  if  his  decision  is 
disliked  by  you  or  me,  we  may  go  forth  and  upon 
obtaining  a  certain  number  of  signatures  drag  this 
judge,  virtuous  though  he  is  known  to  be,  drag  him 
from  the  bench,  force  him  onto  the  public  platform 
in  a  campaign  involving  his  honor  and  his  judicial 
position,  bring  his  case  to  the  polls  and  try  him  by 
popular  ballot ! 

What  a  monstrous  proposal  in  a  land  of  laws 
and  liberty!  As  well  abolish  our  courts  and  try 
our  issues  in  civil  cases  at  the  polls,  try  our  law- 
breakers at  the  polls! 

How  widely  different  from  the  orderly  procedure 
in  this  Commonwealth,  where  a  judge  may  be 
removed  only  after  a  hearing  before  the  chosen 
representatives  of  the  people,  guaranteeing  a  fair 
presentation  of  the  case  upon  both  sides. 

Nor  is  the  objection  to  recall  of  judges  or  deci- 
sions a  denial  of  the  people's  rights  and  republican 
government,  nor  yet  an  evidence  of  distrust  in 
all  the  people  —  no,  rather  is  it  an  appeal  to  a 
government  of  law  and  order  under  a  Constitu- 
tion guaranteeing  certain  rights  and  equal  rights 
to  all. 

President  Butler,  of  Columbia  University,  in  an 
address  at  St.  Louis,  speaking  of  the  recall  of 
judges,  said: 

"It  is  an  outrage  of  the  first  magnitude!  It  is 
said,   ^Are    not    the    judges    the    servants    of    the 


24  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

people?  Do  not  the  people  choose  them  directly 
or  indirectly,  and  should  not  the  people  be  able 
to  terminate  their  services  at  will?'  To  these 
questions  I  answer  flatly,  No!  The  judges  stand  in 
a  wholly  different  relation  to  the  people  from 
executive  and  legislative  officials.  The  judges  are 
primarily  the  servants,  not  of  the  people,  but  of 
the  law.  It  is  their  duty  to  interpret  the  law  as 
it  is  and  to  hold  the  law-making  bodies  to  their 
Constitutional  limitations,  not  to  express  their 
own  personal  opinions  on  matters  of  public  policy. 
It  is  true  that  the  people  make  the  law,  but  they 
do  not  make  it  all  at  once.  Our  system  of  common 
law  has  come  down  to  us  from  ancient  days,  slowly 
broadening  from  precedent  to  precedent.  It  is  not 
a  dead  or  fixed  thing.  It  is  capable  of  movement, 
of  life,  and  of  adaptation  to  changing  conditions. 
But  it  must  be  changed  and  adapted  by  reasonable 
and  legal  means  and  methods,  and  not  by  shouting 
or  tumult." 

We  cannot  and  must  not  forget  that  last  article 
of  our  Bill  of  Rights  in  this  Commonwealth: 

"Article  30.  In  the  government  of  this  Com- 
monwealth, the  legislative  department  shall  never 
exercise  the  executive  and  judicial  powers,  or  either 
of  them;  the  executive  shall  never  exercise  the 
legislative  and  judicial,  or  either  of  them;  the 
judicial  shall  never  exercise  the  legislative  and 
executive  powers,  or  either  of  them;  to  the  end 
it  may  be  a  government  of  laws  and  not  of  men.'' 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  25 

If  our  judges  are  to  be  subject  to  recall,  will  it 
not  inevitably  result  that  strong  and  able  lawyers 
would  soon  come  to  refuse  to  serve  on  the  bench 
when  the  honest  opinion  of  a  trained  legal  mind 
may  bring  down  upon  one  the  disgrace  and  humilia- 
tion of  a  recall  by  the  people  who,  disliking  his 
judicial  utterance  and  regardless  of  its  soundness, 
would  punish  him  by  returning  him  to  private 
life,  just  and  learned  and  virtuous  though  he 
may  have  been. 

The  recall  of  decisions  is,  however,  of  far  greater 
importance  than  the  recall  of  judges  —  the  latter 
being  after  all  a  matter  of  ^'expediency,"  as  its 
chief  advocate  says,  but  the  former  proposes  a 
direct  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  and  those  of  the  several  states  by 
making  the  people  a  part  of  the  judicial  department 
of  government. 

We  are  asked  to  abolish  the  principle  so  ex- 
pressedly  set  forth  in  the  Constitution  of  three 
divisions  of  government,  executive,  legislative,  and 
judicial. 

In  specious  argument  it  is  urged  that  the  people, 
under  God,  made  the  Constitution;  that  it  is  for 
them  and  theirs,  and  hence  if  a  judicial  decision 
suits  them  not,  they  are  to  express  the  law  as  they 
would  have  it,  thus  superseding  or  recalling  the 
disliked  decision  of  the  courts. 

It  has  been  urged  by  some  that  the  recall  of 
decisions    is    intended    merely    for    cases    arising 


26  FOURTH   OF  JULY  ORATION. 

within  a  state  and  involving  a  decision  of  consti- 
tutionality of  a  law  by  reason  of  its  depriving 
persons  of  property  or  liberty  ^^  without  due  process 
of  law/'  that  is,  laws  involving  the  so-called  police 
power  of  the  state. 

If  this  contention  be  true  and  the  intention  is 
only  to  apply  the  recall  to  decisions  affecting 
"due  process  laws/'  pray  who  shall  say  that  it  will 
not  be  further  extended?  What  guaranty  that  it 
shall  not  in  the  near  future  be  extended  to  all 
decisions? 

Assuming,  however,  that  only  such  decisions 
are  to  become  the  subject  of  recall  a  very  consider- 
able field  will  have  been  covered. 

Justice  Holmes  in  Noble  State  Bank  v.  Haskell 
(219  U.  S.  104,  111),  speaking  for  the  Supreme 
Court,  says: 

"The  police  power  extends  to  all  the  great  public 
needs.  It  may  be  put  forth  in  aid  of  what  is  sanc- 
tioned by  usage,  or  held  by  the  prevailing  morality 
of  strong  and  preponderant  opinion  to  be  greatly 
and  immediately  necessary  to  the  public  welfare." 

Thus,  even  in  the  viewpoint  of  the  timid  ad- 
vocates of  recall  we  come  to  a  vast  and  growing 
branch  of  the  law  involving  constant  judicial  deter- 
minations and  the  people  are  to  be  made  judges 
that  they  may  have  just  what  they  want  when 
and  as  they  want  it,  regardless  of  constitutions 
and  laws. 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  27 

Law  as  a  science,  law  as  a  written  exposition  of 
truths  justified  by  the  ages,  law  as  a  tradition  of 
eternal  principles  is  to  reign  no  more  in  fair  Col- 
umbia; dethroned  and  disgraced,  the  blind  goddess 
shall  be  driven  from  the  courts  of  justice  to  the 
dungeon  and  the  rack,  and  each  man  shall  be  the 
law,  and  all  men  shall  be  the  law,  and  justice  shall 
be  called  chaos! 

Ah,  listen  to  our  great  Chief  Justice  Shaw 
(Com.  V  Anthes,  5  Gray,  185) !  In  speaking  of  the 
three  great  powers,  executive,  legislative  and  judi- 
cial and  the  distinction  ever  to  be  preserved 
among  them,  that  we  may  be  a  government  of 
laws,  he  says: 

"It  declares  the  end  of  all  good  government  to 
depend  on  the  honest  execution  of  good  laws.  In 
its  application  to  judicial  power  it  intimates  that 
the  judicial  powers  when  it  shall  duly  and  deliber- 
ately pronounce  its  behests,  shall  be,  as  nearly  as 
consistently  with  human  passions  and  infirmities  it 
can  be,  the  pure  voice  of  the  law.  The  security 
of  the  public,  in  the  right  and  pure  administration 
of  the  law,  punishing  offences  and  the  security 
and  protection  of  individuals  rightfully  or  wrong- 
fully accused,  are  made  to  depend,  not  upon  the 
supposed  interests,  proclivities,  or  even  honest 
and  well-founded  opinions  of  the  men  who  happen 
in  any  department  to  be  the  organs  through  which 
its  behests  are  uttered,  but  the  voice  of  the  law." 


28  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

And  again: 

''The  founders  of  our  Constitution  understood 
what  every  reflecting  person  must  understand  from 
the  nature  of  the  law,  in  its  fundamental  princi- 
ples and  in  its  comprehensive  details,  that  it  is  a 
science,  requiring  a  long  course  of  preparatory 
training,  of  profound  study  and  active  practice, 
to  be  expected  of  no  one  who  has  not  dedicated  his 
life  to  its  pursuit;  they  well  understood  that  no 
safe  system  of  jurisprudence  could  be  established, 
that  no  judiciary  department  of  government  could 
be  constituted  without  bringing  into  its  service 
jurists  thus  trained  and  qualified." 

But  wide  as  its  range  may  be  and  complicated 
as  it  is,  the  science  of  law  shall  be  administered  by 
all  the  people,  the  art  of  law  shall  be  the  people's 
will! 

And  we  who  would  offer  objection  to  this  radical 
change  and  subversal  of  the  scheme  of  government 
laid  down  from  the  beginning,  and  better  still, 
practised  with  such  glorious  results  to  humanity 
from  the  first  days  of  the  Republic  —  we,  forsooth, 
are  to  be  branded  as  false  to  the  people,  unwilling 
to  have  the  people  rule,  believing  in  an  aristocracy 
of  brains  and  ability  —  we  are  to  be  stigmatized 
and  abused  out  of  our  very  citizenship! 

We  must  not  let  these  thoughts  frighten  or  deter 
us  from  our  plain  duty  for  "Far  above  any  flicker- 
ing light  or  battle-lantern  of  party  is  the  everlasting 
Truth,  in  whose  beams  are  the  duties  of  men." 


FOURTH   OF  JULY   ORATION.  29 

Are  we  faithless  to  the  rule  of  the  people  when 
we  refer  only  to  trained  bodies  of  men,  our  educa- 
tional system,  and  follow  their  advice? 

Is  it  a  lack  of  confidence  in  the  honesty  and 
integrity  of  the  masses  that  we  call  to  the  bed  of 
suffering  and  pain  only  certain  men  trained  in  the 
science  of  medicine  and  carry  out  their  instructions 
to  the  letter? 

Is  it  an  insult  to  the  people  to  deny  that,  without 
special  training,  they  are  incapable  of  teaching 
the  young,  of  healing  the  sick,  of  construing  laws? 

And  what  are  we  to  say  in  the  case  of  a  man 
accused  of  murder  and  found  guilty,  when  the 
popular  sentiment  feels  that  the  verdict  is  unjust? 
Are  we  not  to  have  a  judgment  by  the  people  at 
the  polls?  And  if  a  judgment  at  the  polls  in  the 
case  of  a  murder,  why  not  in  case  of  any  felony, 
or  even  misdemeanor?  We  are  told  that  the  people 
are  competent  and  trustworthy  to  construe  a  con- 
stitution; why  not  to  pass  upon  the  facts  and  law 
in  a  criminal  case? 

But  the  answer  comes  back,  the  jury  are  the 
people,  the  people  through  the  jury  have  acted 
upon  the  case  of  the  criminal  and  found  him  guilty! 
Ah,  yes,  the  jury  are  the  people  because  it  is  so 
ordained  by  constitutional  provision  —  but  so,  too, 
is  the  court  acting  for  the  people,  by  like  constitu- 
tional provision. 

It  must  be  apparent  that  once  granting  the  fair- 
ness and  wisdom  of  a  recall  of  judicial  decisions, 


30  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

we  must  inevitably  come  to  a  review  of  all  decisions 
by  the  people.  We  come  to  a  pure  democracy 
without  a  representative  form  of  government  — 
written  laws  become  valueless,  established  principles 
are  overthrown  and  government  grows  into  present 
popular  fancy  which  spells  early  destruction. 

We  cannot  in  considering  this  question  afford  to 
forget  that  judges  and  courts  are  not,  were  not 
intended  to  be,  and  can  never  be,  under  our  present 
form  of  government,  purveyors  to  popular  fancy, 
leaders  in  needed  reforms,  advocates  of  special 
theories. 

They  are  to  expound  the  law  as  they  find  it, 
having  in  mind  always,  of  course,  the  people  and  the 
civilization  for  whom  the  law  is  intended.  Theirs 
is  to  state  the  law  as  it  is  even  although  it  be  not 
to  their  liking,  and  to  interpret  it  in  all  honesty  and 
fairness  as  it  is,  not  as  they  would  have  it. 

One  would  think  from  the  arguments  advanced 
in  favor  of  the  recall  that  we  were  powerless  to 
change  existing  laws  or  amend  our  present  con- 
stitution. If  a  law  is  unpopular  or  impracticable 
the  remedy  is  at  hand  by  repeal  or  amendment  — 
not  by  abuse  of  the  judicial  decision  or  the 
official  interpreter  of  the   law. 

The  question  must  come  to  our  lips  —  are  we 
really  being  badly  misled,  mistreated,  deceived  by 
the  courts?     Is  the  course  of  justice  running  smooth 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  31 

or  has  it  taken  to  a  tortuous  route  of  indecision, 
infidelity  and  ruthless  disregard  of  the  people's 
rights  and  privileges? 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  here  and  there  through- 
out the  country,  amid  the  thousands  of  final  deci- 
sions by  courts  of  last  resort,  of  which  hundreds 
are  of  the  broadest  and  most  far-reaching  effect, 
there  have  been  decisions  that  seem  to  have  been 
extreme  and  which  tended  to  arouse  the  resentment 
of  the  people.  But  such  has  ever  been  the  case, 
such  would  be  the  result  if  the  people  at  the  polls 
decided  judicial  questions.  It  is  the  common  weak- 
ness of  erring  humanity. 

It  is  only  too  true  that  all  through  our  system  of 
government,  as  in  private  affairs,  men  will  make 
mistakes  of  judgment  that  may  be  expensive  and 
hurtful  to  somebody  and  yet  we  do  not  condemn 
the  whole  system  or  business  when  such  a  thing 
happens. 

We  cannot  have  respect  for  the  law  if  the  judi- 
ciary is  to  be  made  the  kicking  post  for  dissatisfied 
litigants  and  judicial  decisions  overturned  by  those 
unskilled  and  untrained  in  the  science  of  the  law. 

Hamilton  said: 

"For  I  agree  that  there  is  no  liberty  where  the 
power  of  judging  be  not  separate  from  the  legis- 
lative and  executive  powers  .  .  .  the  complete  inde- 
pendence of  the  courts  of  justice  is  peculiarly  essen- 


32  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

tial  in  a  limited  Constitution  .  .  .  limitations  of 
this  kind  can  be  preserved  in  practice  no  other  way 
than  through  the  medium  of  courts  of  justice  whose 
duty  it  must  be  to  declare  all  acts  contrary  to  the 
commands  of  the  Constitution  void." 

It  was  Adams  who  said:  "Although  there  may 
be  unjust  and  unequal  laws,  obedience  to  which 
would  be  incompatible  with  liberty,  yet  no  man 
will  contend  that  a  nation  can  be  free  that  is  not 
governed  by  fixed  laws.  All  other  government 
than  that  of  permanent  known  laws  is  the  govern- 
ment of  men,  will  and  pleasure,  whether  it  be  exer- 
cised by  one,  a  few,  or  many."  "Well  ordered 
governments  were  those  where  laws  prevailed.  Har- 
rington says:  'Government  de  jure,  or  according 
to  ancient  prudence,  is  an  act  whereby  a  civil  society 
of  men  is  instituted  and  preserved  upon  the  foun- 
dation of  common  interest,  or  to  follow  Aristotle 
and  Livy,  it  is  an  empire  of  laws  and  not  of  men.' 
The  great  question  therefore  is  what  combination 
of  powers  in  society  or  what  form  of  government 
will  compel  the  formation,  impartial  execution  and 
faithful  interpretation  of  good  and  equal  laws, 
so  that  the  citizens  may  constantly  enjoy  the  benefit 
of  them  and  may  be  sure  of  their  continuance." 

Let  us  then  in  the  absence  of  a  real  weakness 
in  our  present  judicial  system,  yes,  in  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  strength  and  purity  of  our  present 
judicial  system,  let  us,   I   say,   stand  firm  to  the 


FOURTH  OF   JULY   ORATION.  33 

principles  of  a  republican  form  of  government 
with  its  three  divisions  of  power. 

It  is  not  always  progress  to  destroy;  it  is  not 
advancement  to  be  rash;  it  is  not  liberty  to  be 
lawless. 

There  can  be  and  ever  shall  be  a  progress  along 
safe  lines;  a  progress  that  spells  improvement; 
a  progress  based  on  the  Constitution  and  law  and 
order. 

Radicalism,  sensationalism  and  their  inevitable 
result,  destruction,  come  forth  in  times  of  great 
national  excitement  and  we  must  ever  be  on  our 
guard  not  to  be  led  astray  by  appeals  to  passion 
and  prejudice. 

We  have  a  duty  as  citizens  to  reaffirm  and  declare 
as  often  as  need  be  the  undying  principles  of  our 
democracy  in  this  Republic. 

Declaration  of  principles,  however,  and  affirma- 
tion of  our  loyalty  count  for  little  unless  we  bring 
to  our  duties  as  citizens  the  fullest  realization  of 
the  importance  of  the  trust  reposed  in  us  for  the 
benefit  of  future  generations. 

Lamentations  and  criticisms  without  hopeful 
remedy  and  sane  recommendation  avail  not  at  all. 
Victory  to-day,  as  in  the  past,  is  not  to  the  sluggard, 
the  pessimist,  the  weakling,  but  to  the  active,  the 
hopeful  and  the  strong. 

Hopefulness,  tenacity  of  principle,  steadfastness  are 
the  characteristics  of  good  citizenship  to-day  as  ever. 


34  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

It  was  Burke  who  said  that  the  first  duty  of 
a  statesman  is  to  learn  the  temper  of  the  people 
among  whom  he  lives. 

This  does  not  mean,  however,  that  the  statesman 
is  to  create  that  temper,  to  sow  dissension,  to  create 
unrest. 

True  it  is  that  there  are  many  economic  and 
social  problems  to  be  solved,  and  solved  quickly, 
in  the  interests  of  the  people. 

We  cannot  claim  perfection,  and  never  shall. 
The  milennium  is  not  yet  at  hand  and  Utopia 
is  still  an  undiscovered  country! 

We  can,  however,  each  of  us  do  our  share.  It 
may  be  that  we  cannot  be  principals  in  the  solution 
of  some  of  the  vital  social  problems  of  the  day; 
it  may  be  that  to  us  shall  come  no  active  part  in 
the  economic  reforms  which  are  pressing  for 
solution.  But  surely  to  each  of  us  comes  the  loud 
call  to  a  militant  citizenship  which  shall  first  of  all 
make  itself  apparent  by  our  respect  for  the  law, 
which  is  the  first  word  in  good  citizenship.  For 
respect  means  devotion  and  devotion  means  sacrifice 
and  out  of  sacrifice  grows  perfection. 

As  that  great  American  citizen,  Cardinal  Gibbons, 
recently  said:  "No  citizen  should  be  a  drone  in 
the  social  beehive.  No  man  among  you  should  be 
an  indifferent  spectator  of  the  moral,  political 
and  economic  questions  which  affect  the  welfare 
of  the  Commonwealth." 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  35 

We  are  told  that  Magna  Charta  was  ratified  ''no 
less  than  two  and  thirty  different  times  in  succeed- 
ing reigns,  on  occasion  of  every  extraordinary  grant 
from  the  subjects  or  an  unusual  weakness  of  the 
crown." 

Let  us  then  with  Burke  "bind  up  the  constitu- 
tion of  our  country  with  our  dearest  domestic  ties, 
adopting  our  fundamental  laws  into  the  bosom  of  our 
family  affections;  keeping  inseparable,  and  cherish- 
ing with  the  warmth  of  all  their  combined  and 
mutually  reflected  charities,  our  hearths,  our  sep- 
ulchres and  our  altars." 

Experience  tells  us  that  in  defeat  victory  is  oft 
concealed  and  that  out  of  failure  success  may 
oft  times  spring.        ♦ 

As  we  look  back  upon  the  struggles  of  the  past, 
the  first  great  struggle  against  tyranny  and  oppres- 
sion, the  awful  struggle  of  fifty  years  ago  between 
brothers,  that  all  men  might  be  held  equal  before 
the  law,  we  can  take  courage  and  strength.  These 
examples  prove  to  us  the  devotion  of  service  and 
sacrifice  for  a  principle.  We  know  that  a  just 
cause,  a  holy  cause,  though  won  in  the  travail  and 
sweat  and  horror  of  war,  is  dear  to  the  heart  of 
man,  and  must  ever  claim  his  very  life  in  its 
protection. 

On  all  of  us  rests  the  duty  of  true  citizenship, 
the  fulfillment  of  the  freeman's  oath  to  uphold  the 
law,  and  honest   effort  under  that  oath  brings  the 


36  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

devotion  and  service  and  sacrifice  that  go  to  make 
the  best  citizens  and  the  ideal  government. 

Valiant  in  peace  as  in  war,  efficient  in  the  affairs 
of  men  as  on  the  field  of  battle,  we  must  keep  unsul- 
lied the  white  flag  of  peace  and  lend  all  aid  to  the 
hosts  of  men  in  the  struggles  of  trade  and  in  intel- 
lectual pursuits  and  in  civic  duty  of  highest  type. 

"He  who  is  conscious  of  having  deserved  well 
of  the  Commonwealth,  who  covets  no  vain  celeb- 
rity, and  disdains  the  success  of  a  day  for  real 
glory,  he  who  is  determined  to  tell  the  truth,  inde- 
pendent of  the  fluctuating  waves  of  public  opinion, 
bears  within  himself  his  own  reward." 

Such  men  are  and  must  ever  be  the  protection 
of  society,  more  precious  far  than  golden  treasure 
and  the  serried  hosts  of  armed  men, —  for  they 
live  the  life  of  peace,  of  hope,  of  progress  to  better 
things;  they  bring  virtue  and  order  to  the  state 
that  its  days  may  be  long  and  its  achievements 
blessed. 

Respect  for  the  law  is  obedience  to  the  law.  The 
constitutional  guaranties  of  the  organic  law  of 
the  nation  afford  protection  to  the  weak  and 
the  powerless  against  the  tyranny  of  the  strong 
and  the  powerful. 

In  the  years  to  come  laws  framed  in  the  spirit  of 
righteousness,  and  respect  for  those  laws,  will  still 
keep  this  Republic  of  ours  in  the  vanguard  of  the 
army  of  civilization  and  human   progress.     In   the 


I 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  37 

perpetual  expression  of  the  divine  models  thundered 
from  Sinai  and  in  the  enactment  and  observance 
of  beneficent  laws  inspired  in  the  justice  and  kind- 
liness of  the  greatest  Reformer  in  the  history  of  the 
world  I  see  the  true  destiny  of  our  country.  Under 
laws  granting  no  privilege  to  the  few  and  withhold- 
ing no  protection  from  the  many  I  see  the  triumphant 
march  of  the  nation.  In  that  future  the  oppressed 
seek  not  in  vain  for  relief,  the  weak  are  not  the 
victims  of  the  strong,  the  rich  and  the  powerful 
crush  not  the  poor  and  lowly,  the  shackles  of 
industrial  slavery  no  longer  chain  the  laborer  to 
unrequited  toil.  By  the  benign  alchemy  of  gradual 
social  reform,  the  aristocracy  of  wealth,  of  educa- 
tion, of  power,  and  the  despotism  of  necessity  and 
ignorance  shall  become  transmuted  into  the  enlight- 
ened Republic  of  men  guided  and  safeguarded  by 
law,  and  everlastingly  secure  in  their  liberties 
because  of  law! 


A    LIST 


BOSTON   MUNICIPAL   ORATORS, 


By   C.   W.   ERNST. 


BOSTON     ORATORS 

Appointed  by  the  Municipal  Authorities. 


For  the  Anniversary  of  the  Boston  Massacre,  March  5,  1770. 

Note.  —  The  Fifth-of-March  orations  were  published  in  handsome  quarto  editions, 
now  very  scarce ;  also  collected  in  booli  form  in  1785,  and  again  in  1807.  The  oration 
of  1776  was  delivered  in  Watertown. 

1771.  —  LovELL,  James. 

1772.  — Warren,  Joseph." 

1773.  —  Church,  Benjamin.^ 

1774.  —  Hancock,  John.*^ 

1775.  — Warren,  Joseph. 
1776. — Thacher,  Peter. 

1777.  —  Highborn,  Benjamin. 

1778.  — Austin,  Jonathan  Williams. 

1779.  —  Tudor,  William. 
1780. — Mason,  Jonathan,  Jun. 
1781. — Dawes,  Thomas,  Jun. 

1782.  — MiNOT,  George  Richards. 

1783.  — Welsh,  Thomas. 


For  the  Anniversary  of  National  Independence,  July  Jf.,  1776. 

Note.  —  A  collected  edition,  or  a  full  collection,  of  these  orations  has  not  been 
made.  Tor  the  names  of  the  orators,  as  officially  printed  on  the  ti-tle  pages  of  the 
orations,  see  the  Municipal  Register  of  1890. 

1783.  —  Warren,  John.^ 
1784. — HiCHBORN,  Benjamin. 

1785. GrARDNER,  JOHN. 

a  Reprinted  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  1774,  8vo.,  19  pp. 

b  A  third  edition  was  published  in  1773. 

1  Reprinted  in  Warren's  Life.  The  orations  of  1783  to  1786  were  published  in  large 
quarto;  the  oration  of  1787  appeared  in  octavo;  the  oration  of  1788  was  printed  in  small 
quarto;  all  succeeding  orations  appeared  in  octavo,  with  the  exceptions  stated  under 
1863  and  1876. 


42  APPENDIX. 

1786.  — Austin,  Jonathan  Loring. 

1787.  — Dawes,  Thomas,  Jun. 
1788. — Otis,  Harrison  Gray. 

1789.  —  Stillman,  Samuel. 

1790.  — Grat,  Edward. 

1791.  —  Crafts,  Thomas,  Jun. 
1792. — Blake,  Joseph,  Jun.^ 
1793. — Adams,  John  Quincy.^ 
1794.  — Phillips,  John. 
1795. — Blake,  George. 
1796.  —  Lathrop,  John,  Jun. 
1797. — Callender,  John. 

1798. quincy,  josiah.^'^ 

1799.  — Lowell,  John,  Jun.'* 
1800. — Hall,  Joseph. 

1801.  —  Paine,  Charles. 

1802.  — Emerson,  William. 

1803.  —  Sullivan,  William. 
1804. — Danforth,  Thomas. ** 

1805.  —  Button,  Warren. 

1806.  —  Channing,  Francis  Dana.'* 

1807.  — Thacher,  Peter, 2'  ^ 

1808.  — Ritchie,  Andrew,  Jun.^ 

1809.  — Tudor,  William,  Jun.'' 
1810. — TowNSEND,  Alexander. 

1811.  —  Savage,  James. ^ 

1812.  — Pollard,  Benjamin.* 

1813.  —  Livermore,  Edward  St.  Loe. 


2  Passed  to  a  second  edition. 

3  Delivered  another  oration  in  1826.  Quincy's  oration  of  1798  was  reprinted,  also, 
In  Philadelphia. 

*  Not  printed. 

i^On  February  26,  1811,  Peter  Thacher's  name  was  changed  to  Peter  Oxenhridge 
Thacher.  (List  of  Persons  whose  Names  have  been  Changed  in  Massachusetts,  1780- 
1892,  p.  21.) 


APPENDIX.  43 

1814.  —  Whitwell  .  Benjamin  . 
1815. — Shaw,  Le^^uel. 

1816.  —  Sullivan,  George.^ 

1817.  —  Channing,  Edward  Tyrrel. 

1818.  —  Gray,  Francis  Galley. 
1819.' — Dexter,  Franklin. 
1820.  —  Lyman,  Theodore,  Jun. 
1821. — LoRiNG,  Charles  Greely.'^ 

1822.  —  Gray,  John  Chipman. 

1823.  —  Curtis,  Charles   Pelham.^ 

1824.  —  Bassett,  Francis. 

1825.  —  Sprague,    Charles.^ 
1826. — QuiNCY,  Josiah.'^ 

1827.  —  Mason,  William  Powell. 

1828.  —  Sumner,  Bradford. 

1829.  — Austin,  James  Trecothick. 

1830.  —  Everett,  Alexander  Hill. 

1831.  —  Palfrey,  John  Gorham. 

1832.  — QuiNCY,  Josiah,  Jun. 

1833.  — Prescott,  Edward  Goldsborough. 

1834.  —  Fay,  Richard  Sullivan. 
1835. — HiLLARD,  George  Stillman. 

1836.  —  Kinsman,  Henry  Willis. 

1837.  —  Chapman,  Jonathan. 

1838. — WiNSLOw,  Hubbard.  "The  Means  of  the  Per- 
petuity and  Prosperity  of  our  Republic." 

1839. — Austin,  I  vers  James. 

1840. — Power,  Thomas. 

1841.  — Curtis,  George  Ticknor.^  "The  True  Uses  of 
American  Revolutionary  History. "^ 

1842.— Mann,   Horace.^ 

8  Six  editions  up  to  1831.    Reprinted  also  in  Ms  Life  and  Letters. 

T  Reprinted  in  his  Municipal  History  of  Boston.    See  1798. 

*  Delivered  another  oration  in  1862. 

"  There  are  five  or  more  editions ;  only  one  by  the  City. 


44  APPENDIX. 

1843. — Adams,  Charles  Francis. 

1844.  —  Chandler,  Peleg  Whitman.      "The  Morals  of 

Freedom." 

1845.  —  Sumner,  Charles. ^°     "The  True    Grandeur   of 

Nations." 

1846. — Webster,   Fletcher. 

1847. — Cary,  Thomas  Greaves. 

1848.  — Giles,  Joel.     "Practical  Liberty." 

1849. — Greenough,  William  Whjtwell.  "The  Con- 
quering Republic." 

1850.  —  Whipple,  Edwin  Percy. ^^  "Washington  and 
the  Principles  of  the  Revolution."  * 

1851. — Russell,  Charles  Theodore. 

1852. — King,  Thomas  Starr. ^^  "The  Organization  of 
Liberty  on  the  Western  Continent."" 

1853. — Bigelow,  Timothy. ^^ 

1854.  —  Stone,    Andrew    Leete.^     "The    Struggles    of 

American  History." 

1855.  —  Miner,  Alonzo  Ames. 

1856. — Parker,    Edward    Griffin.      "The  Lesson   of 

'76  to  the  Men  of  '56." 
1857. — Alger,  William  Rounseville."     "  The  Genius 

and  Posture  of  America." 

1858.  — Holmes,  John  Somers.^ 

1859.  —  Sumner,  George. -^^ 
1860. — Everett,  Edward. 
1861. — Parsons,  Theophilus. 
1862.  —  Curtis,  George  Ticknor.^ 
1863. — Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell.^® 
1864. — Russell,  Thomas. 

10  Passed  through  three  editions  in  Boston  and  one  in  London,  and  was  answered 
in  a  pamphlet,  Remarks  upon  an  Oration  delivered  by  Charles  Sumner  ....  July 
4th,  1845.  By  a  Citizen  of  Boston.  See  Memoir  and  Letters  of  Charles  Sumner,  by 
Edward  L.  Pierce,  vol.  il.  337-384. 

11  There  is  a  second  edition.     (Boston:  Ticknor,  Reed  &  Tields.    1850.    49  pp.  12°.) 

12  First  published  by  the  City  in  1892. 

18  This  and  a  number  of  the  succeeding  orations,  up  to  1861,  contain  the  speeches, 
toasts,  etc.,  of  the  City  dinner  usually  given  in  Faneull  Hall  on  the  Fourth  of  July. 


APPENDIX.  45 

1865. — Manning,     Jacob     Merrill.        "Peace    under 
Liberty.'" 

1866.  —  LoTHROP,  Samuel  Kirklanb. 

1867.  —  Hepworth,  George  Hughes. 

1868. — Eliot,  Samuel.     "  The  Functions  of  a  City." 
1869. — Morton,  Ellis   Wesley. 
1870. — Everett,  William. 
1871. — Sargent,  Horace  Binney. 
1872.  — Adams,  Charles  Francis,  Jun. 
1873. — Ware,  John  Fothergill  Waterhouse. 
1874. — Frothingham,  Richard. 

1875. — Clarke,  James  Freeman.     "  Worth  of  Republi- 
can Institutions." 

1876.  —  WiNTHROP,  Robert  Charles." 

1877.  —  Warren,  William  Wirt. 

1878.  —  Healy,  Joseph. 
1879. — Lodge,  Henry  Cabot. 

1880.  —  Smith,  Robert  Dickson. ^^ 

1881.  —  Warren,  George  Washington.     "Our  Repub- 

lic— Liberty  and  Equality  Founded  on  Law." 
1882. — Long,  John  Davis. 
1883. — Carpenter,     Henry     Bernard.  "American 

Character  and  Influence,"  ^ 

1884.  —  Shepard,  Harvey  Newton. 
1885. — Gargan,   Thomas  John. 

"  Probably  four  editions  were  printed  In  1857.  (Boston :  OflSce  Boston  Daily  Bee. 
60  pp.)  Not  until  November  22, 1864,  was  Mr.  Alger  asked  by  the  City  to  furnish  a 
copy  for  publication.  He  granted  the  request,  and  the  first  official  edition  (J.  E.  Far- 
well  &  Co.,  1864, 53  pp.)  was  then  issued.  It  lacks  the  interesting  preface  and  appendix 
of  the  early  editions. 

IS  There  Is  another  edition.  (Boston:  Ticknor  &  Fields,  1859,  69  pp.)  A  third 
(Boston :  Rockwell  &  Churchill,  1882,  46  pp.)  omits  the  dinner  at  Faneuil  Hall,  the 
correspondence  and  events  of  the  celebration. 

i«  There  is  a  preliminary  edition  of  twelve  copies.  (J.  E.  FarweU  &  Co.,  1863.  (7), 
71  pp.)  It  is  "  the  first  draft  of  the  author's  address,  turned  into  larger,  legible  type, 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  rendering  easier  its  public  delivery."  It  was  done  by  "  the 
liberality  of  the  City  Authorities,"  and  is,  typographically,  the  handsomest  of  these 
orations.  This  resulted  in  the  large-paper  75-page  edition,  printed  from  the  same 
type  as  the  71-page  edition,  but  modified  by  the  author.  It  is  printed  "  by  order  of  the 
Common  Council."    The  regular  edition  Is  in  60  pp.,  octavo  size. 


46  APPENDIX. 

1886. — Williams,  George  Frederick. 

1887.  —  Fitzgerald,  John  Edward. 

1888. — DiLLAWAY,  William  Edward  Lovell. 

1889. — Swift,  John  Lindsay. ^^     "The  American   Citi. 

zen." 
1890. — PiLLSBURY,  Albert  Enoch.     "  Public  Spirit.  " 

1891.  — QuiNCY,  JosiAH.^o     "The  Coming  Peace." 

1892.  —  Murphy,  John  Robert. 

1893.  —  Putnam,  Henry  Ware.     "The  Mission  of  Our 

People." 

1894.  —  O'Neil,  Joseph  Henry. 

1895. — Berle,  Adolph  Augustus.  "The  Constitution 
and  the  Citizen." 

1896. — Fitzgerald,  John  Francis. 

1897. — Hale,  Edward  Everett.  "The  Contribution  of 
Boston  to  American  Independence." 

1898.  —  O'Callaghan,  Rev.  Denis. 

1899. — Matthews,  Nathan,  Jr.  "Be  Not  Afraid  of 
Greatness." 

1900. — O'Meara,  Stephen.  "Progress  Through  Con- 
flict." 

1901. — Guild,  Curtis,  Jr.  "Supremacy  and  its  Con- 
ditions." 

1902. — CoNRY,  Joseph  A. 

1903.  — Mead,   Edwin    D.      "The    Principles    of    the 

Founders." 

1904.  —  Sullivan,  John  A.     "Boston's  Past  and  Pres- 

ent.    What  Will  Its  Future  Be?" 


"  There  Is  a  large  paper  edition  of  fifty  copies  printed  from  this  type,  and  also  an 
edition  from  the  press  of  John  Wilson  &  Son,  1876.    55  pp.  8°. 

"On  Samuel  Adams,  a  statue  of  whom,  by  Miss  Anne  Whitney,  had  just  been 
completed  for  the  City.    A  photograph  of  the  statue  Is  added. 

"Contains  a  bibliography  of  Boston  Fourth  of  July  orations,  from  1788  to  1888^ 
Inclusive,  compiled  by  Lindsay  Swift,  of  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

*<•  Reprinted  by  the  American  Peace  Society. 


APPENDIX.  47 

1905. —  Colt,  Le  Baron  Bradford.  "America's  Solu- 
tion of  the  Problem  of  Government." 

1906. —  CoAKLEY,  Timothy  "Wilfred.  "The  American 
Race :  Its  Origin,  the  Fusion  of  Peoples ;  Its 
Aim,  Fraternity." 

1907. —  HoRTON,  Rev.  Edward  A.  "Patriotism  and  the 
Republic." 

1908. —  Hill,  Arthur  Dehon.  "The  Revolution  and 
a  Problem  of  the  Present." 

1909. —  Spring,  Arthur  Langdon.  "The  Growth  of 
Patriotism." 

1910. —  Wolff,  James  Harris.  "The  Building  of  the 
Republic." 

1911. —  Eliot,  Charles  W.  "The  Independence  of 
1776   and   the  Dependence  of   1911." 

1912. —  Pelletier,  Joseph  C.     "  Respect  for  the  Law." 


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